Footsteps
by RedHead1319
Summary: One night. They changed the course of her life in one night, and he doesn't know that it changed. At least not yet. Trory.
1. Coffee at 3 in The Morning

**Author's Note:** This is my seconded attempt at FanFiction my other story I am stuck because I have a hard time writing Jess. Anyway I am in need of a beta reader so if any one is interested in the job please feel free to e-mail me. Thanks and I hope you like it and reviews are the best

Disclaimer: I don't own the Gilmore Girls, if I did Rory would have said yes to Logan and Luke would not have been a pain in the 6th season. But I think I can place claim on Ella and her friends when they come up.

**Things you need to know**: after the I love you incident between Rory and Dean they didn't get back together. She did go out with Jess during her senior year.

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Chapter 1: Coffee at Three in the Morning

Rory wakes with a start, she had that dream again. It was so real and so vivid. The dream was of a flashback that changed her life. That night before the morning that broke her heart.

She never meant to fall in love with him; it had only been one night. But if she was honest with herself she would admit that she always had feelings for him, deep down she did love him before, but she would never be honest with herself.

Rory gets out of bed and slowly walks out of her room and down the hall to the kitchen to make coffee, knowing that she would not be able to fall back to sleep. As she moves to the living room with her coffee she sees her blue eyed, blond hair angel sitting awake on the couch.

Her daughter, Lorelai Elizabeth Gilmore IV, or more fondly Ella, was 14 going on 25 and heading to Chilton following in both her mother's and father's footsteps. She was a product of the night that still haunts Rory in her dreams.

"Hey, little girl, what are you doing up?" Rory asked her daughter.

"What do you mean I am always up… and I'm reading," Ella said in an obvious tone while holding up the book she was reading, _Catch-22._ Ever since Ella was about 12 she had insomniac tendencies and as she got older the hours at night that se didn't sleep had becoming slowly longer.

"I can see that and I know, but what are you doing out here 3:00 in the morning?" Her mother questioned sitting down next to Ella, as she puts her head on her mother's shoulder. Whenever Ella couldn't sleep she would either stay in her room or climb into her mother's bed knowing that she was most likely awake.

"Oh you know had a nightmare about great-grandma sending me to a finishing school, which grandma said is a fate worst than death." Ella joked sarcastically finishing off in a whisper. In return she got a pointed look form her mother telling her she didn't believe Ella. "Ok, I was just thinking about the party great-grandma made us attend and the father-daughter dance tonight and now that I start to think about and I didn't want you to worry or know." Ella started to ramble

Rory wrapped her around her daughter, she knew how hard it was for Ella, especially looking and acting so much like him.

"Can you tell me about him please mommy," Ella asked quietly

Rory sighed, "Okay," she whispered.

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Tell me what you think and review! 

Thanks, Nikki


	2. Late Night Talks

Thanks to the people who reviewed.

**Curley-Q**: About the initials I didn't even realized that until you pointed it out. But I wanted to thank you because it gave me a small idea.

Also thanks to my beta,curlyk03

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Chapter 2: Late Night Talk 

"What do want to know?" Rory asked

"I don't know. Something, anything, everything…" Ella whispered back afraid to break the silence that had come between them.

Both Lorelai's sat in the quiet of the night as Ella waited for her mom to break the silence.

"Ok, I'll tell you everything," Rory took a deep breath before continuing. "I had met him in my sophomore year when I transferred to Chilton. He would constantly hit on me calling me Mary-"

"Like the Virgin Mary?" Ella questioned with slight laughter in her voice.

"Yes, like the Virgin Mary," Rory answered then continued with her story. "He was a player, the King of Chilton people called him. He was cocky but I guess you could argue that he had a reason because most of the girls would fall at his feet and swoon when they saw him. He looked like an Abercrombie and Fitch model crossed with a Roman god…" Rory trailed off and got a far off look in her eyes.

"Ok mom, as hot as he might be, stop trying to undress him in your head. I can't believe I just said that about my father." Ella finished in a disgusted tone

"As I was saying, and I was not undressing him, I hated him-"

Ella cut her off, "Then why did you sleep with him?"

"If you quit interrupting maybe I would get to that part." Rory gave her daughter a look telling her silently that if she continues to interrupt than she won't keep telling Ella about her father.

Ella, understanding, made a show of zipping her mouth shut, locking it and throwing the key away.

"Funny," Rory said dryly, "Anyway in high school, I did hate him. He teased and annoyed me to no end. By the time our junior year came around, we had a tentative friendship." Rory paused a moment than continued, "We were doing this Romeo and Juliet project where we had to reenact the death scene. Of course he was Romeo and I was Juliet. So the day of the play we were about to go on stage and no one could find him. I remember Paris going crazy trying to hunt him down.

"When he finally walked into school he seemed a little upset and he told us that his father was pulling him out of school. I asked why and he said he had gotten into trouble and the police were letting their parents handle it, which for him meant going to military school in North Carolina. His father called for him and he kissed me good-bye and whispered 'good-bye Mary'."

"Wait!" Ella than interrupted, "That doesn't fit the time line, if that was the last time you saw him-"

"I never said that was the last time I saw him. And didn't I say something about interrupting me?"

"Sorry," Ella muttered

"I wanted you to understand the kind of relationship I had with him in high school. The very last time I had seen him was the summer before I went to Yale after I got back from Europe..."

_Flashback_

_Rory looked around her grandparent's house and sighed. She hated that she was shanghaied into going to this party by her grandma. She had been there for a little over an hour and was bored out of her mind. Between having small talk with the people around her and being pushed into talking to every guy her grandmother claimed "would be perfect for her" she wasn't sure which was worse._

"_Rory?" She heard her name being called behind her. She turned around and saw him. He looked almost the same as when she last saw him over a year ago, but his hair was shorter and he had a slightly mature air around him. She was also pretty sure that under the suite he was wearing, were very defined muscles that expanded over his body. But one thing that hadn't changed was his icy blue eyes that sent tremors down her spine._

_She whispered his name than asked, "What are you doing here?"_

"_Oh you know my parents dragged me here because it's my last night in Connecticut before I head off to college." He replied  
_

"_That must suck, I was guilt tripped into coming here tonight also since I went to Europe this summer and apparently they haven't seen me since graduation." Rory stopped when she realized that she started to ramble. _

_He laughed, "Ya, I get what you mean I think that the line my mother used was, 'we let you go to the school you wanted to.'"_

_Rory chuckles to and asks, "So where are you going to college then if you got to choose?"_

"_United States Naval Academy__," He answered with pride._

"_Where's that?"_

"_Annapolis, __Maryland__."_

"_So, you liked Military school than?" Rory questioned in confusion. All she knew about it was what she had seen on TV or in movies, and that wasn't anything she could see him liking._

"_Hell no! It was hard, I mean the classes were easy compared to Chilton but the discipline and no one caring what your last name was or who you are, that was the hardest. But enough about me, where are you headed?" He quickly changed the subject deciding he said more than he intended_

"_Yale, I leave next week." She answers seeing the way he had changed the subject._

"_Really? I was sure you had your heart set on Harvard."_

"_I did, but Yale became Harvard. It had all the classes I wanted and as a huge added bonus it's close to home," Rory said, rambling off her reasons._

"_This is out of the blue, but would you like to get coffee and we could catch up a little, leave this boring party?"_

"_Sure" Rory responds automatically wanting to spend more time with him. She shakes her head not knowing where those thoughts came from. Shaking it off, she smiles up at him._

_----Footsteps----  
_

_They were sitting down with coffees in front of them at a small table in a local café in Hartford about 15 minutes away the Gilmore's house party._

_They had been there for over two hours talking about his time at military school and the trip Rory had with her mother in Europe. He told her that he started hang around with Duncan and Bowman because he was having family issues. Her saying that she hated him was just the icing on the cake. After she apologized and told him that she hadn't meant it, they slipped into an uncomfortable silence. They both sat in the silence sipping their coffees when the both started to speak at once._

"_Why did you-"_

"_How was-" _

_It was then that they both started to laugh and the tension and slight awkwardness that had settled around them had disappeared._

"_You go first," Rory had said to him and motioned him to continue his question._

"_I was going to ask how Chilton was after I left."_

"_It was good, I guess you could say. I mean as good as hell can be." He chuckled at her choice of words, "Paris and I had a truce, well kind of but the hate was gone and it became a subtle dislike. We became friends last year after something had happened. It got easier, well not academically, but you get what I mean. I did miss someone leaning up against the locker next to mine and bugging me." Rory finished with a small smile._

"_Really?" He questioned and Rory could see in his eyes that he was surprised and had a slight glint of happiness in them._

"_Ya, I did," Rory answered him in a shy voice as a reddish tint made its way to her face. She dropped her head to avoid his gaze._

"_I missed you too…Mary." He smirked as he said the nickname and her eyes shot up to his and smiled at him._

_They were caught in a stare until a middle aged waitress came up to them and cleared her throat, "I hate to ask you two kids to leave but we need to close up." The girl and boy looked around and saw that the café was completely empty and the chairs were now set up on the tables._

_After thanking and saying goodbye to the waitress, they walked out to Rory's car and drove off in comfortable silence. The only words exchanged were directions to his apartment._

_When Rory stopped in front of his apartment building, "So…" Rory started as she turned off the car._

"_Do you want to come up? I mean to finish our coffee time." He rushed out wanting to spend more time with her._

_Rory looks at him for a moment and knowing that she doesn't want the night to end, agrees._

_When they get into his apartment Rory follows him into the kitchen, leans up against the counter, and watches him make the coffee. Thinking how just over a year ago, she could barley stand to talk to him and now she felt butterflies in her stomach as she watched him move to grab two coffee mugs on the other side of her. He had lost his tie and suit jacket at the door of his apartment. His dress sleeves had been rolled up and the top two buttons on his shirt were undone. As he moved around, she could see his now untucked shirt moving behind him. She had been right, he was gorgeous and she had a hard time pulling her eyes away from him. It wasn't just a physical attraction but something much deeper than what she recognized._

He catches her openly staring at him and she blushes and looks down, he sets the coffee cups down and stands right in front of her. "Mary…" he whispers

_She looks up at him, their faces inches apart he slowly brought his head and kisses her softly. Then more passion came with each kiss as Rory wrapped her arms around his neck and he snaked his around her waist to pull her closer. When they pulled apart their breathing was heavy and their foreheads rested together._

"_Bedroom," Was all Rory whispered_

_He looked at her in the eyes, "Are you sure?" She gave a smile nod. "I wasn't expecting this to happen when I invited you up here."_

"_I know you didn't, but I want this," She answered back_

_He just nodded his head and pulled her into his room and shut the door, the coffee forgotten._

_End Flashback_

"And one thing lead to another and now you're here" Rory finished as she looked at her daughter with a tiny smile on her face.

"I really don't know what to say, I mean why don't, I know him if his family was friend with the Gilmores then… I don't get it!" Ella said in confusion and exasperation.

"What you have to understand is that he wanted to get out of this life he disliked everyone in his family except his grandfather and his way out was through military school and the Navel Academy, that was how he explained it to me, it was something that he did by himself with no help form anyone in his family or the connection they had. From what I know he hasn't been back to Hartford since he left for college, and I had no way of contacting him after he left."

"Why didn't you have an address or cell phone number before he left?"

"He wasn't there in the morning."

"What?" Ella cried slightly disgusted

"It's not what you're thinking," Rory reassured her daughter.

_Flashback_

_Rory opened her eyes with the light shining in them when she turned over to escape the sun she saw the color of the sheets were a dark blue rather then her white ones. She shot up in bed nervous at where she could be and the memories of the night before flooded her thoughts. Rory looked over at the other side of the bed and did not see the male companion she had fell asleep next to but a note and breakfast. She gingerly pick up the note and read it._

_My Mary,_

_I am so sorry that I couldn't be there when you woke up and I didn't want to wake you. I had to leave early for school. I hope you don't regret last night because I don't. Feel free to stay as long as you like and I hope your breakfast and coffee are still warm. I will miss you Rory so much._

_Love, T_

_Rory smiled a sad smile with tears in her eyes she wished that she was able to see him one more time. She brought the plate of food over to her and picked at the pancakes thinking that she no didn't regret it either._

_End Flashback _

As Rory finished her story Ella looked at her mom, "You loved him too, didn't you?" She asked

Rory look at her daughter and answered, "Ya, I did."

They both sat in silence listening to the tick-tock of the clock before Ella whispered, "You never told me his name."

"What?" Rory looked at Ella not have heard what she said.

"You never told me his name." She repeated

"Tristan, Tristan DuGrey."

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Please review and thanks for reading 

Nikki


	3. Snopping Mid Day

**AN: I am so sorry it took so long, I am defiantly not one of the speedy updaters. Anyway I want ot thank my beta curlyk03. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Now on with the show!!**

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Chapter 3: Snooping Midday

_Thud_

"Crap," Ella muttered into the empty apartment as the box she was trying to get down from her mom's closet fell to the floor. "I hope there wasn't anything breakable in there," she said to herself.

Ella brought the box out to the living room and sat it on the coffee table. She sighed and sat on the couch, looking at the box that had the words _"High School Stuff"_ written on it.

Ever since the talk about her dad with her mom two nights ago, the topic had been on her mind. So, the night after the talk, she went online and 'googled' him, but found nothing of great importance that she didn't already know.

Now she was stooping as low as to go through her mother's thing when she was at work. Ella thanked the gods when her mom got a call to go into work because of some crisis or another.

She was about to open the box when she heard the apartment door open. She quickly turned around while trying to hide the box with her body, when she saw the blonde hair of her best friend and neighbor.

"Give me a heart attack why don't you?! You know there is this thing called knocking. Ever heard of it?" Ella asked harshly

"Knocking you say?" the blonde paused in mock thought than shaking his head, "No I don't think I have ever heard of this thing in which you speak." He finishes in fake astonishment.

"What do you want Michael? I am kind of busy."

"With what?" Michael asks suspiciously. Michael, or Mike, Huntzberger was an exact replica of his father from the blond hair and chocolate brown eyes down to the playboy tendencies and ever present smirk. Logan and Michael lived in the large apartment across the hall from Rory and Ella.

Mike and Ella have known each other almost forever, Rory and Logan had met at Yale when Rory was a freshman and he was a senior. They crossed path in the newsroom and had become friends. Logan and his friends had adopted her into their group with very few questions about her pregnancy. The only questions they'd asked was when the baby was due and if it was a boy or a girl. Their friends Stephanie and Rosemary had helped Rory's mom throw a surprise baby shower. The group even went as far as to help her pick names. Even though they were almost five years older, they had become friends and thought of Rory as a younger sister.

So inevitably when Stephanie and Colin and Rosemary and Finn had their sons Nicholas and Jacob respectively, months after Ella had been born, she and the boys had become friends.

Mike was a different story; his mother was a one-night stand and didn't tell Logan that she was pregnant. One day after Nick and Jake were born, Logan found Mike on his doorstep with his birth certificate and a letter explaining that the women wanted nothing to do with Michael. Also in that letter were the papers that signed all rights of custody to Logan.

Growing up with single parents and not knowing the other is what made Ella and Mike closer to each other then any other person except their respective parents.

"Nothing of any interest," Ella said quickly

"Then why are you trying so hard to hide that box on the table?"

"I was you know…Damn it I got nothin'." Ella said defeated, having not been able to think of a good lie fast enough.

Mike laughed at his best friends antics, "You know here's a thought, the truth is always a good excuse."

"'The truth is always a good excuse?'" Ella looked at him unbelievably, "Ok, Mr. 'I-dented-my-dad's-car-and-told-him-someone-else-did'."

"Well, technically if someone hadn't put a tree where they did…Hey! You're trying to distract me."

"And it was working too," Ella said with sass.

There was a moment of silence between the two friends "So…" Mike ventured

Ella sighed. She was unsure if she should tell Mike about what she knew about her dad because she wasn't sure if he would ever know anything about his mom. It wasn't like he really wanted too, though. That was the difference between them. Her father didn't know of her existence and Ella had a feeling he truly loved Rory, while Mike's mother chose not to be in his life and was just going to use Logan for money.

"Two nights ago my mom told me about my dad." Ella finally said

"Whoa," Mike said in shock sitting down on the couch.

"Ya, I know," She answered slumping down next to him with another sigh.

"So, you know who he is?"

Ella nods her head, "Yup, his name is Tristan DuGrey. He and my mom went to high school together and he was shipped off to military school. They met up again right before they started college and well, they never kept in touch."

"So he doesn't know about you, then." Mike stated more than questioned. At Ella's confirmation he asked a question, "So what's with the box? I'm assuming it has something to do with the recent events?"

"Well you know what they say when you assume…" Ella quickly said

"But in this case I'm right so, answer," he shot back as quickly as she had.

"Fine, this is a box of my mom's high school stuff and I was going to see if there was anything about him in it or maybe a yearbook with his picture." She looked nervously at the box and then back at Michael, "Do you think I should?"

"I can't answer that, but if I were you I would." He replied looking at the box.

With determination Ella stood up with her best friend and reached toward the box but stopped "You do know that no one can know about this. This is between you and me, I don't even want Nicholas or Jake to know."

"I know," the other blonde replied easily.

Ella opened the box and looked inside. There were uniforms, a graduation hat, robe, and valedictorian sash at the top. Under that were some programs and certificates for different things such as an edition of the Franklin and a medieval looking dress.

"What was this for?" Michael asked as he pulled up a hat that clearly went with the dress and put it on his head.

She looked up quickly to him and than back at the box continuing to look through it. She answered, "I think that was from when my mom had this _Romeo and Juliet_ project where my mom played Juliet and Tristan played Romeo." Mike nodded.

"Ah ha!" Ella announced, triumphantly holding up a large hard covered book.

"Jackpot," Mike grinned as he took the hat off his head.

Ella sat on the couch and Mike came and sat down close to see the book that she moved in between them and opened it. They opened up to the middle of the book where the class pictures were and saw a younger looking Rory Gilmore. Scanning the page they found what they were looking for, his picture. Ella traced the picture with her fingers. _This is him, this is my dad _she thought.

She moved her eyes over the rest of the page quickly and saw a picture of her parents sitting side by side smiling and laughing. Tristan looked at Rory with something akin to love and you could tell that Rory was completely oblivious to it. Under the picture was a caption saying: _Tristan DuGrey and Rory Gilmore (the unofficial King of Chilton and his Mary)_

Ella stared at the picture, probably the only picture of her parents together. She was completely overcome with emotion as she felt the tears form in her eyes. She looked at Michael and whispered to him, "He really loved her," at this declaration Mike brought Ella into his arms and let her rest on his shoulder.

A few minutes later Ella slowly pulled away and grabbed the yearbook, missing the feeling of her best friend's arms around her. She looked Michael straight in the eyes and stated determinedly, "I am going to find him."

Mike stood up and grabbed her hands in both of his and said just as determinedly, "And I am going to be there to help."

_--Footsteps--_

Tristan DuGrey stepped off the airplane and looked around. He sighed and thought bitterly. '_Home Sweet Home_'. As he walked out of the airport, a voice came over the intercom announcing, "The flight from Hartford, Connecticut to San Francisco, California is now boarding."

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Please Review 

Nikki


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